First F9 v1.1/F9R core. Look close and you can see the lower landing leg attachments. These won't be used right away, but once the Grasshopper 2 project evolves to land landings they'll be ready to use them.

You aren't the only one who thinks so, though in the expendable trim the legs aren't used, and the feature list just keeps climbing.

The first F9 v1.1/F9R has been shipped to Vandenberg where it'll be integrated, do some pad tests, then launch the CASSIOPE satellite for Canada.. Provisional date is Sept. 5th.

During that first flight SpaceX intends to try and "land" the first at sea (safer for a first try.) A new Grasshopper 2 based on F9 v1.1 will fly from SpacePort America in New Mexico, purpose being perfecting the land landing tech & software. Once done they can (hopefully) upload it into the operational rockets, attach the legs and go.

The latter - flights scaling up to 300,000 ft first stage profile simulations. Real launches of F9 will test that part of the profile from stage separation through the turnaround and return. The September 5 launch will try to do the deceleration & reentry without turning back with a legless water landing - a hail Mary. If it works it could shorten the F9R development.

Does anybody know when we can expect the new Dragon to be revealed? I read in a previous topic there is supposed to be a drop test of Dragon this month, was hoping somebody had more info on this

There is a drop test of the SNC Dream Chaser spaceplane later this month. This will be a robotic flight, with the drop from 14,000 ft. After that altitudes and conditions get ramped up and sometime in 2014 crews will fly her in the atmosphere - very like the recent SpaceShipTwo tests. Once they're sure of her handling they'll light those 2 big honkin' hybrid rockets for power-on tests.

The pad abprt test of the crew Dragon's advanced SuperDraco based launch abort system (LAS) is set for December 2013 or early 2014. This test simulates escaping a disaster on the pad, something that was unsurvivable with the Shuttle. The reveal should be just before this test.

In mid-2014 another test of Dragon's LAS will be done during a full-up launch at Max-Q, the point of highest physical stress, to make sure it'll work under the harshest conditions. This was about when Challenger exploded.

An emergency in the first 3 minutes of a Shuttle launch was pretty much unsurvivable. SpaceX is designing Dragon the survive emergencies from the pad all the way to orbit

Another big contract, this time with the German Ministry of Defense for recon satellites. This really has to irk Arianespace and Russia.

SPACEX IS AWARDED LAUNCH OF GERMAN RADAR RECONNAISSANCE SATELLITE SYSTEM

Falcon 9 rocket will deliver three-satellite SARah Constellation that will serve German Ministry of Defense

Hawthorne, CA – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) will provide the launch services for Germany’s second-generation radar reconnaissance satellite system. The satellites, provided by OHB System AG and Astrium GmbH, will replace the current constellation and will be delivered to orbit by two Falcon 9 rockets in 2018 and 2019.

"SpaceX looks forward to working with OHB and Astrium, and we appreciate their confidence in SpaceX to reliably deliver these satellites to orbit,” said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX President and COO. “These missions are very meaningful for SpaceX as the first contracted for a European government.”

OHB will build two passive-antenna synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, and Astrium GmbH will build a larger, phased-array-antenna satellite under contract for OHB. The three-satellite constellation will replace the current OHB-built five-satellite SAR-Lupe constellation.

A lot of it is because the US Air Force is qualifying SpaceX to launch its national security payloads, including the big National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) spy satellites (bigger than Hubble.) Germany is a NATO partner so....

Fact is, SpaceX has built a big complex almost across the street from the NRO headquarters so they can work together easier.